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Apple CEO Tim Cook Shares His Experience Of Working With President Donald Trump (bloomberg.com)
In a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about his experience of working with Donald Trump. He said: I feel a great responsibility as an American, as a CEO, to try to influence things in areas where we have a level of expertise. I've pushed hard on immigration. We clearly have a very different view on things in that area. I've pushed on climate. We have a different view there. There are clearly areas where we're not nearly on the same page. We're dramatically different. I hope there's some areas where we're not. His focus on jobs is good. So we'll see. Pulling out of the Paris climate accord was very disappointing. I felt a responsibility to do every single thing I could for it not to happen. I think it's the wrong decision. If I see another opening on the Paris thing, I'm going to bring it up again. At the end of the day, I'm not a person who's going to walk away and say, "If you don't do what I want, I leave." I'm not on a council, so I don't have those kind of decisions. But I care deeply about America. I want America to do well. America's more important than bloody politics from my point of view. Let me give you an example of this. Veterans Affairs has struggled in providing health care to veterans. We have an expertise in some of the things at the base level that they're struggling with. So we're going to work with them. I could give a crap about the politics of it. I want to help veterans. My dad's a veteran. My brother served. We have so many military folks in Apple. These folks deserve great health care. So we're going to keep helping.
Help Americans, sure you do Timmy.
Doesn't it follow that non-vets deserve at least accessible basic healthcare?
Where Tim and Donald agree is that neither of them or their companies should have to pay US tax.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Totally illegal(?)
Mr. Cook, with all due respect, how can you claim to be remotely "responsible" while your lifestyle, and the lifestyles of those like you, is destroying our society and our environment.
I'm curious as to what you know about Cook's "lifestyle". I will venture the guess "absolutely nothing whatsoever."
Meetings with Tim must be fun when he says the opposite of what he actually means. You'd hope that a CEO or one of the world's largest companies would at least have a grasp of basic English.
Apple has FAR greater ability to create jobs than the federal government does as a general proposition. Apple is sitting on a gigantic war chest of money. If Tim Cook really gave a shit about creating jobs he could spend some of that Scrooge McDuck pile of money on something. Saying he supports Trump on job creation is a bunch of bullshit unless he is actually directing his company to do everything it can to create jobs. He hasn't done this so he's lying about that.
The only reason for Apple to sit on a pile of cash that large is because they cannot figure out something productive to do with the money. So they should either return it to shareholders or find some way to put it to productive use.
Veterans Affairs has struggled in providing health care to veterans. We have an expertise in some of the things at the base level that they're struggling with. So we're going to work with them. I could give a crap about the politics of it. I want to help veterans. My dad's a veteran. My brother served. We have so many military folks in Apple. These folks deserve great health care. So we're going to keep helping.
The VA needs help to be sure but how about solving the bigger problem? EVERYONE needs health care, not just veterans. EVERYONE needs health insurance, not just veterans. IT in medicine sucks terribly for the most part. Apple has done nothing to tackle this problem. That would be a great place to invest some of those billions they have on their balance sheet. Buy some medical records companies and get busy. Do something rather than talking to Trump which is probably a waste of time.
When the leadership of any corporation has more concern for politics, political issues than its people, products and investors, that leadership has lost its way. Steve Jobs was approached by a large charity (possibly United Way) who wanted Apple to support the charity directly. Reportedly, Steve Jobs told the charity that he paid his people well and if the charity wanted to directly ask his employees for support, to go ahead but that Apple, as a corporation, would not. Jobs did not dilute the energy, activities, and resources of Apple to support the charity. He believed it was a "personal" issue and seemed happy for Apple employees to support whatever charities that they, individually, wanted to support. Tim Cook, on the other had, likes to throw Apple into every one of his pet projects. I am not make comment on the value of his "causes" (I agree with many of them) but his short-sighted business strategy. At this time, Apple needs to "buck up" and come out with Jobesque style renovations and revolutionary products. Tim Cook has led Apple into no such products. Even the driverless, electric car is years away and, probably, with today's technology unreachable for Apple. Flouting a non-existent product is a poor business strategy.
I wish there were more people with the attitude that they want to do what they can to fix what problems they can, and that far too many people do instead say, "If you don't do what I want, I leave."
I'm sorry you don't like Cook as a person, or Apple as a company. Nevertheless, this is a worthy sentiment that is worth emulating.
Although the article here seems tailor made to bring out both the political flames as well as the Apple-bashing flames, I would like to say that I admire this attitude.
Talk is cheap. I judge a man by his actions. Tim Cook talks a good game about caring about the country but he does everything in his power to have his company avoid paying taxes to support it. Apple has billions in cash on their balance sheet which could be invested in ways that would create jobs. Instead they simply sit like Smaug on their pile of gold and do nothing that would create jobs or drive the economy forward. Apple has outsourced nearly all of their manufacturing to China, even stuff that might not actually have to be outsourced. Tim Cook I'm sure has many wonderful qualities but on the stuff he's talking about here he is nothing but a do-nothing hypocrite. Few companies are as well resourced to help change the world as Apple but sadly Apple and Cook are doing little with that opportunity.
I wish there were more people with the attitude that they want to do what they can to fix what problems they can, and that far too many people do instead say, "If you don't do what I want, I leave."
So do I. What's more I think rich powerful men like Tim Cook should be leading the charge instead of hoping others do it for them. Elon Musk is a FAR better example of someone trying to actually improve the world than Tim Cook is.
According to environmental scientists if you are using electricity and not living or at least pushing for their "agrarian utopia" you are destroying society and our environment.
Bullshit. Citation needed.
Which "scientists" are you purportedly quoting here?
Cook lives in a multi-million dollar abode so hard to claim, by their standards, that he is living a responsible lifestyle.
In Silicon Valley "multi-million dollar abode" means a shack with running water.
Where Tim and Donald agree is that neither of them or their companies should have to pay US tax.
First of all, Apple paid over 8 billion dollars in taxes last year alone. How much did you pay? Apple does more to help the U.S. every year than generations of your family ever will.
As for the overseas money, Apple has said repeatedly they want to repatriate the money they have overseas, they just can't see paying the rates the U.S. current changes to do so.
Trump has said he wants to lower that rate dramatically so companies (not just Apple) can bring that trapped cash back to the U.S.
So both of them are on the same page - they want to bring a lot of money back into the U.S. and pay reasonable taxes on it.
It will happen in the next few years, so put down that hateraide and stop lying to yourself and others.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A need does not create a right. People need health care, but it is NOT government's job to give everybody what they need.
Fuck you for thinking that people don't have a right to receive health care. Everybody should have a right to be treated when they are sick without being bankrupted in the process. If you think otherwise then you are an asshole. Plenty of people work very hard and still end up with medical bills FAR beyond their ability to pay them. A few weeks stay in a hospital can easily cost six figures. The only institution that can solve this problem is the government and to pretend otherwise is both idiotic and cruel.
Even taking ethics out of it, pure economic pragmatism should drive us to want to see everyone taken care of because if you don't insure everyone then you end up spending even more money when they inevitably end up in the ER and drive up costs for everyone.
IT, computer systems, and hospital billing are such a clusterfuck any solutions in healthcare that don't address them are a waste of time. Single payer fixes nothing when hour long services and bags of mostly saline solution are billed at the same rates as luxury SUVs.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
The have billions of dollars (in foreign currency). However, it is doubtful that these money can be used to create jobs
Baloney. If they do pretty much anything economically useful beyond simply gathering interest from securities, jobs will be created. But as long as they keep that pile of money sitting in the figurative bank no jobs of any kind will be created. There is no task you can do that involves billions of dollars that will not create meaningful numbers of jobs. But they have to actually try to do something first. Apple hasn't taken a significant risk since the iPhone was released. It's just been incremental improvements and variations on existing technology for the most part.
According to environmental scientists if you...
Bullshit. Citation needed. Which "scientists" are you purportedly quoting here?
Such as Oxford Martin School or read the work of Carol Smith from United Nations University and David Brubaker from John Hopkins.
"Oxford Martin School" is not a scientist, in fact, is not even a person.
"Carol Smith from United Nations University" is not a scientist. She is a journalist.
I don't know anything about David Brubaker. He doesn't seem to be a scientist, or at least, google scholar can't dig up any citations to his papers. And he is not listed on the staff of Johns Hopkins.
Few companies are as well resourced to help change the world as Apple but sadly Apple and Cook are doing little with that opportunity.
Sadly, our capitalist system is ill-suited to the kind of altruistic effort you describe. Fiduciary responsibility prevents most corporations from taking risks for the common good.
I have what I call the Elon Musk Rule for Billionaires: If you're doing even 1/10th of the public good as Elon does, then you deserve your billions. But if you're just another hedge-funder, sitting on your Smaug hoard, then you -- or rather the fact that you are a billionaire -- is not doing any good for the rest of us. Furthermore, the fact that you are keeping all that coin in your hoard, and out of circulation, is in fact a detriment to the rest of us. You are nothing more than a blood-sucking parasite with a fancy suit and a Ferrari.
It's worth noting that both SpaceX and Tesla were started as private companies (and SpaceX is still private) precisely because Elon knew he could never get away with such risky behavior as a public corporation.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
And that's why Trump asked Cook to give him advice: on the subjects that Cook is actually an expert on, which is large tech companies and the tech sector.
Cook has no expertise in climate change or immigration, nor is he surrounded by well-informed individuals on those subjects, nor does he spend his time aggregating information on those subjects. Cook is therefore unqualified in those areas both as an expert or as an aggregator of expert opinion.
You make this argument because it is Apple, and not a "dirty" oil company, because you likely believe Apple is a "good" socially responsible company, even if they are not.
The problem is that these large companies hire expensive lawyers and lobbyists to make the rules. Apple is also guilty of this. So, this is not a simple case of "oooops, lookey here, i found me a deduction." It is more along the lines of, "I will donate X to your campaign, and you make me a 8x deduction. It is wrong and despicable. Don't forgive companies for doing this.....Especially Apple and Google, who claim to be socially responsible, then hides from paying taxes so less services can be provided. Hypocrites suck. No matter how much they put a good face eon it.
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.